PARENTS of pupils at a York primary have been asked to promise to park safely when doing the school run.

Robert Wilkinson Primary Academy in Strensall, which has 562 pupils, has signed up to York City Council's parking pledge and the school also ran a competition for children to design a special badge which parents can display in their windscreens, won by Eleanor Hoyland.

In a letter to parents, head teacher Richard Ludlow said: "There are two continuous problems we are facing on a daily basis. The first being the volume of traffic in our local community particularly at dropping-off and picking-up times.

"I have noticed an increase in car usage over the years, and our in-school analysis of our catchment area shows that more children are choosing to come to our school from further afield, and so [parents] probably need to use their car to get their children to school.

"The second problem is the unsafe parking of a very small minority of our parents at dropping-off time.

"We have the road markings outside school to prevent cars parking close to the school gates and causing a health and safety issue, our children being the most important thing for all of us, however some parents still choose to park on these lines, or they use the entrance to the school gates to drop off or do a u-turn."

As a result the school has been working closely with Christine Packer, from City of York Council who is responsible for safe routes to schools, and has been in to meet the children and launched the parking badge competition.

The parking promise which parents have been asked to sign shows that they are aware of the importance of parking sensibly and safely outside the school.

Once the new badges are printed, parents who drive their children to school will be able to collect a parking badge to display in their car from the school.

The Parking Promise asks parents:
• not to park on zig-zag or double yellow lines
• not to park on pavements
• to park carefully and considerately
• to consider walking or cycling, or Park&Stride and park a short distance away and walk the remaining bit.